About NLRM

Network License And Reporting Manager(NLRM) is a utility that enables network licensing and monitors the usage of Autodesk product licenses on a network. Available on Windows and Linux, it records how many licenses were used and how long each license was in use. The data is sent to Autodesk to support Token-Flex licensing. You can view usage reports on the Autodesk Account Portal.

NLRM replaces the combination of Network License Manager (NLM) and Network License Reporting Service (NLRS). Instead of having to use NLM for license issuance and NLRS for usage reporting, with NLRM you can accomplish both functions from a single utility.

Preparing for Installation

Gather the below information you’ll need to configure NLRM in your target environment. Please check these against System Requirements listed in the next section.

• In which operating systems will you be installing NLRM?
  • Windows — Identify version
  • Linux — Identify distribution and version
• Which of the following Autodesk Network Licensing solutions are currently installed?
  • Network License Manager (NLM)
  • Network License Manager (NLM) + Network License Reporting Service (NLRS)
  • Network License and Reporting Manager (NLRM)
• What type of proxy server setup exists for the outbound communication from the license server?
  • No proxy server
  • Non-authenticated proxy server
  • Proxy Configuration Type (manual, PAC, WPAD)
  • Proxy Authentication Type (Basic, NTLM, Digest, Kerberos)
• Which user account is NLM/NLRM running under?
  • Default account (Local Service)
  • Any other account
• Which connectivity restrictions are in place, if any?
  • No connectivity restrictions: The server is always connected to the Internet.
  • Limited connectivity: The server has only interim access to the Internet to transmit accumulated data.
  • Zero connectivity: The server never has access to the Internet.
• What Personally Identifiable Information (PII) restrictions are required, if any?
  • No restrictions: PII data can be sent to Autodesk in plain text.
  • Requires masking: PII data must be masked before being sent to Autodesk.

System Requirements

For detailed list of requirements, please refer to the NLM system requirements here.

Data Collected

Data elements collected by NLRM and sent to Autodesk:

• License server data

  • Customer service contract number (Autodesk issued identifier)
  • Hostname and MAC addresses
  • Operating system name, version, and release
  • NLRM process runtime, CPU/memory usage, start time
  • Username of account under which processes are running
  • System memory(free/total) and uptime
  • NLRM application logs

• License user's data

  • OS username and hostname
  • Feature code of product in use

Before initiating the installation process, check the status of the following elements and make any required changes.

Files Required

Before starting the upgrade process, please ensure that you have

• the latest version of the NLRM installer (.msi or .rpm file).
• license and authorization certificate if you do not already have valid ones. Copy all the files to the server in which NLRM will be hosted.

Firewall setup

• Allowed URLs: The table below lists the URLs / protocols that should be made accessible from the license server for NLRM to work correctly.

• Allowed ports: The following ports must be open for NLRM to function correctly:
  • 443 for transmitting usage data to Autodesk (https://car2.autodesk.com)
  • 2080 for adskflex (Autodesk vendor daemon)
  • 27000 to 27009 for lmgrd (master daemon)

Note: If a custom port is used, then the port value will change for adskflex (Autodesk vendor daemon) and lmgrd (master daemon)

Uninstalling NLM and NLRS

• Windows NLM + NLRS Uninstallation Guide
• Linux NLM + NLRS Uninstallation Guide

Installing and Configuring NLRM

• First Time Install Guide For Windows
• First Time Install Guide For Linux

Upgrading NLRM

• Windows Upgrade Guide
• Linux Upgrade Guide

Updating License

• Update License for Windows
• Update License for Linux

Updating authorization certificate

• Update authorization certificate for Windows
• Update authorization certificate for Linux

Configuring Data Transmit Mode(Offline/Online)

By default, every NLRM license server is in online mode and sends the collected usage data to Autodesk every 5 minutes. If the license server can connect to Autodesk to send the data, just once every few days, there is no need for any additional configuration or manual data transfer. Whenever the license server connects to Autodesk, NLRM will send the locally stored data to Autodesk.

If the license server can never be allowed to send the data to Autodesk directly, then please configure the server in "Manual" transmit mode at the time of initial setup.

Configure Offline Environments

The "Manual" mode will require your system administrator to "export" the usage data from license server machine, transfer it to another machine and send the data from the secondary machine to Autodesk. By default, manual servers are allowed to remain offline (without usage transmission) from 1 to 30 days.

Please note that the data can be stored locally only up to 60 days, after which the old usage data is purged.

To enable manual mode, run the below command from installation directory:

Offline duration allowance

When the transmit-mode is set to manual, you may configure offline duration allowance (1 to 30 days) which is otherwise defaulted to 30 days. The usage data must be exported and transmitted to Autodesk servers, before the configured offline duration allowance is elapsed since the last time usage was collected from the license server.

To set offline duration allowance, use the command below from installation directory:

Data transmission

If the manual mode is enabled, license usage data gets collected locally on the primary license server machine. To transmit this data to Autodesk servers, the server/license administrator then exports the data on the primary license server machine using the command below from installation directory:

Then, manually zip and transfer the data to a secondary machine connected to the internet and use it to transmit the data to Autodesk through the command below from installation directory:

Supported directory paths:

• Any drive e.g., C:/, D:/, on the machine's disk
• Any drive mounted to AWS/Azure VMs (excluding UNC path, UNC mount)

For detailed steps, see Submit usage data manually

Disable Offline/Manual Environment

• Transmit mode can be updated from manual to online any time. To disable manual mode, run the command given below from the installation directory:

• Stop and start NLRM.

All of the previously collected data as well as the newly generated events, will be sent to Autodesk automatically as long as the license server has internet connectivity and firewall/proxy, if any, is allowed to connect to Autodesk.

Configuring Proxy Environments

NLRM supports the following proxy types for communication with Autodesk. NLRM will report license usage data to Autodesk through the configured proxy server.

Authenticated Proxy

NLRM supports Basic, Digest, and NTLM proxy authentication on Windows, configured manually or through Proxy Auto-Configuration(PAC) file.

To configure authenticated proxy, please refer to: Authenticated Proxy Windows Configuration Guide

Note: Authenticated proxy functionality is not supported on Linux.

Non-Authenticated Proxy

NLRM supports non-authenticated proxy on Windows and Linux. Proxy server can be configured using the steps given below.

Windows

• Open a command prompt as administrator
• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM

• Run this command:

    nlrm_config.exe set proxy-server {proxy server url}

  Example proxy server URL: http://proxy-server:8080

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message:

    proxy-server has been configured successfully.

Linux

• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
• Open a terminal at this location

• Run this command:

    sudo ./nlrm_config set proxy-server {proxy server url}

  Example proxy server URL: http://proxy-server:8080

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message:

    proxy-server has been configured successfully.

Configuring PII Masking

If necessary, NLRM allows you to mask the personal information of the end users whose license usage is reported to Autodesk. To mask the personal information (end user's username and machine name), you can enable PII masking before the data is transmitted to Autodesk.

Enable PII masking

Windows

• Open a command prompt as administrator
• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
• Run this command

    nlrm_config.exe set pii-masking true

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message: pii-masking has been configured successfully.

Linux

• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
• Open a terminal at this location
• Run this command

    sudo ./nlrm_config set pii-masking true

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message: pii-masking has been configured successfully.

Disable PII masking

Windows

• Open a command prompt as administrator
• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
• Run this command

    nlrm_config.exe set pii-masking false

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message: pii-masking has been configured successfully.

Linux

• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
• Open a terminal at this location
• Run this command

    sudo ./nlrm_config set pii-masking false

• If the command ran successfully, you'll see this message: pii-masking has been configured successfully.

Export PII mapping

NLRM supports exporting masked PII data and clear format data mapping in a file on an on-demand basis. Using the nlrm_config tool provided by NLRM, a file can be extracted containing the hostname and username mappings.

The mapping file contains data in the following format:

• all hostname mappings, followed by
• all username mappings

This mapping file with masked and unmasked values is NOT created by default. For obtaining the mapping file, please follow these steps:

Windows

• Open a command prompt as administrator
• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
• Run the following command to export the PII mapping

    nlrm_config.exe export-masked-pii-mapping -f {filename}.csv

Linux

• Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
• Open a terminal and run the following command to export the PII mapping

    sudo ./nlrm_config export-masked-pii-mapping -f {filename}.csv

Note:

• This feature supports three file formats: {filename}.csv , {filename}.tsv, and {filename}.json.
• Please use any modern text editor such as Wordpad, Notepad++, Textpad, Excel to view the exported file if the contents of the exported file are not rendered appropriately in notepad.
• Do not use NLRM directory to export PII mapping data

Display NLRM Settings

To display last configured/detected NLRM settings, follow Read NLRM Settings

Reconfiguring NLRM Settings

If you have configured NLRM previously and wish to perform specific operations only, follow Re-configure NLRM Settings. These commands should be executed in consultation with your Autodesk support contact.

NLRM Troubleshooting Guide

For help on common issues, please refer to: Troubleshooting Guide

Uninstalling/Decommissioning NLRM

• Uninstallation Guide for Windows
• Uninstallation Guide for Linux

Release Notes

Please see the latest Release Notes for details on the latest updates.